The following are the results of the 2003 California recall election held on October 7, 2003 which unseated Gray Davis and propelled actor Arnold Schwarzenegger to the governorship.

Candidates

Over 600 Californians took out papers to become gubernatorial candidates and 247 filed those papers. Of those, 135 were certified by the Secretary of State as having met the requirements to be a candidate.

Of the candidates, the party affiliation breakdown was:

• 50 Democrats
• 43 Republicans
• 32 independents
• 4 Greens
• 3 Libertarians
• 2 Natural Law Party
• 1 American Independent
• 1 Peace and Freedom

Results

It was a two-question ballot, with the first question being whether the sitting governor should be recalled. The second question was to decide who ought to replace the governor, in case a majority voted yes on the recall question.

The voters of California decided to recall governor Gray Davis by a 5 to 4 margin (55.4% in favor of recall vs. 44.6% against recall). There were more votes for Schwarzenegger than for the next three candidates combined, including fellow Republican McClintock. There were also more votes for Schwarzenegger than votes against recalling Davis (some were concerned beforehand that Davis' replacement might not reach this level). Voters elected Arnold Schwarzenegger to become Davis's replacement by a plurality of 48.6% to runner-up Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante's 31.5%.

Following the election, all 58 of California's counties had 28 days (until November 4, 2003) each to conduct a countywide canvass of their votes. Counties used this time to count any absentee ballots or provisional ballots not yet counted, to reconcile the number of signatures on the roster of registered voters with the number of ballots recorded on the ballot statement, to count any valid write-in votes, to reproduce any damaged ballots, if necessary, and to conduct a hand count of the ballots cast in 1% of the precincts, chosen at random by the elections official.

Counties then had 7 days from the conclusion of canvassing (November 11, 2003, 35 days after the election) to submit their final vote totals to the California Secretary of State's office. The Secretary of State had to certify the final statewide vote by 39 days (until November 15) after the election. The vote was officially certified on November 14, 2003. Once the vote was certified, governor-elect Schwarzenegger had to be sworn-in to office within 10 days. His inauguration took place on Monday, November 17, making Schwarzenegger the 38th Governor of California.

Candidates appear with party designations and ballot descriptions as provided by the California Secretary of State. Source of election numbers: California Secretary of State's website

Certified election results

Shall Gray Davis be recalled (removed) from the office of Governor?

Candidates to succeed Gray Davis as Governor if he is recalled: